President Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on any country that aligns itself with what he described as the “Anti-American policies of BRICS,” intensifying global trade tensions as the bloc of developing nations holds its summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Trump wrote Sunday evening on Truth Social.
Trump did not elaborate on which specific policies of BRICS — whose original members include Brazil, Russia, India and China — he considered anti-American.
The bloc, formed in 2009, later added South Africa and last year included Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia as members.
In December, Trump threatened 100% tariffs on BRICS if member nations decided to issue their own currency — a move aimed at potentially undermining the US dollar.
His comment on Sunday came shortly after BRICS leaders issued a joint statement appearing to criticize Trump’s protectionist trade policies.
Without naming the US directly, the statement expressed “serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures which distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules,” warning that “the proliferation of trade-restrictive actions” could disrupt the global economy and exacerbate existing inequalities.
The bloc further warned against “unjustified unilateral protectionist measures, including the indiscriminate increase of reciprocal tariffs.”
Stephen Olson, a former US trade negotiator and current visiting senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, told CNBC that Trump may have been provoked by the BRICS joint statement.
According to Olson, the president’s reference to “anti-American” policies may be a response to “the desire expressed by BRICS members to move beyond a US-led world order in finance and global governance.”
However, Olson added that how such alignment would be assessed was “anyone’s guess.”
The bloc describes itself as “a political and diplomatic coordination forum for countries from the Global South and for coordination in the most diverse areas.”
According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the group seeks to challenge Western-led institutions in global economic governance and reduce reliance on the US dollar.
In a symbolic show of solidarity, BRICS leaders also condemned military strikes on fellow member Iran, without naming the US or Israel, which carried out the attacks.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is being represented by Premier Li Qiang at this year’s summit in Rio, while Russian President Vladimir Putin, under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, attended the meeting virtually.
China responded to Trump’s new tariff threat at a regular press briefing on Monday.
“China has been consistent in opposing any tariff war, trade war,” and warned that “arbitrarily slapping tariffs does not serve the interests of any party,” a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said.
She added that China opposed the use of tariffs as “a tool to coerce others,” according to CNBC’s translation of her comments from Mandarin.
The new threat from Trump comes as the White House prepares to finalize and deliver letters to trading partners detailing country-specific tariff rates.
Trump confirmed that the US would begin sending the letters on Monday, a move that aligns with recent comments by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The Trump administration announced earlier this year that steep reciprocal tariffs, first unveiled in April, would take effect on Aug. 1 for countries that fail to reach trade agreements with the US.
A 90-day pause on the tariffs, announced in April, is set to expire on Wednesday. The pause had been instituted just days after the tariff plan was first made public, raising concerns among investors and US trading partners.
Bessent pushed back on the idea that the Aug. 1 date was a shifting deadline.
“We are saying this is when it’s happening, if you want to speed things up, have at it, if you want to go back to the old rate that’s your choice,” Bessent said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
US stock futures were mixed early Monday morning, as investors reacted to Bessent’s comments.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 21 points, or 0.05%, to 45,119.00 before Monday’s opening bell. In contrast, S&P 500 futures edged lower by 11.75 points, or 0.19%, to 6,312.50, while Nasdaq futures fell 72.50 points, or 0.31%, to 22,990.00.
Oil prices also ticked slightly lower, with West Texas Intermediate crude down 0.08 to $66.92 per barrel, a 0.12% drop. Meanwhile, the yield on the US 10-year Treasury note climbed to 4.364%, up 0.024 percentage points, indicating investor movement into bonds amid the trade policy concerns.
